As is known, instrument panels for vehicles are provided with indicator instruments to provide numerical information to the driver, for example information on the speed of the vehicle and the rotation speed of the combustion engine. In general, these instruments are provided with a dial having a series of markings and/or numbers, and a pointer device having a rotating body that is made of a light-guiding material. This rotating body comprises a hub, hinged about an axis to turn under the action of a motor, and a pointer that projects radially from the hub to indicate the marking or number corresponding to the information to provide to the driver. The front face of the pointer is illuminated, at least in night-driving operating conditions, through one or more light sources arranged close to the hub and beneath the dial.
Within the ambit of these solutions, patent EP0967465, which corresponds to the preamble of claim 1, teaches the provision of a cap mounted on the hub and a shield that covers the bottom of the hub to prevent glowing halos on the dial. In patent EP0984249, the cap is co-moulded or over-moulded on the hub so as to form a single piece with the latter and has an appendage that engages a recess made in the light-guiding material of the hub.
A need is felt to improve known solutions of the type just described, in order to make other areas other than the pointer luminous, but with a brightness that, as far as possible, is uniform and disturbance-free, and with the possibility, in the design stage, of setting the amount of light transmitted by the light-guiding material to the various areas to be made luminous.